Before environmental concerns became a staple of urban planning, industrial sites dominated waterfront properties in American cities. For decades, factories used urban waterways to dispose of pollutants. As environmental awareness grew, however, those sites were abandoned, but the toxic aftermath lingered.
New funding and technology are both available now to remedy that risk, and the country’s focus on resilience has led planning officials to discover a new and very attractive potential in local waterfronts. Now federal, state and local governmental entities are collaborating to convert once-toxic riverfront properties into lucrative recreational assets.
At the federal level, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is a principal funder of waterfront redevelopment projects. The agency has several programs that offer financial support to projects that develop waterfront properties and enhance sustainability. The agency is currently accepting funding requests and awards (which last year amounted to a total of $1.2 billion) and will be announced later this year.
